Our (internal) client, Bosch Robotics, was developing a high-fidelity prototype for a semi-automated vehicle that was able to drive on it's own in a predictable environment (highway). Our goal as a UX team, was to come up with the safe and intuitive way for the driver to switch between the manual and automated modes, and interact with the car in various situations.
I was working as an Experience Designer at Robert Bosch Research and Development centre in Palo Alto. The project team included a Design Lead, Project Manager, Mechanical Engineer, and another User Experience Designer.
Our internal client, a Robotics Department of Bosch, had been developing a prototype for the semi-automated car add-on that would "upgrade" any car with an ability to drive autonomously in certain conditions. They provided our team with a high-lever goal to come up with the solution of a user interface that would work for such a prototype. And also to imagine a roadmap to a fully automated vehicle in a long run.
Our ambitions were to create a foundation for a great user experience in a semi-automated vehicle to provide users with guidance and trust in technology.
Our research phase started with writing various hypothesis and defining the goal for this phase:
"To specify context of use and various drivers habits as well as learn about extreme situations on the road."
We then proceeded to plan the research phase which included three locations and various experts:
Bosch automated car prototype
Stanford automated driving simulator
Bosch User Experience lab
After the research was done, we proceeded with defining the personas, and to structure the information to find common themes and pain points that our interview subjects have mentioned.
After defining the personas, we continued to structure the information and find common themes and pain points that farmers mentioned. We defined 9 major areas that where repeatedly discussed during the interviews:
Important factors for AD especially in the beginning are situational awareness (what is happening and why?) and control awareness (who is in control and when/how to take over?).
In order to ensure safety, a clear separation between automated mode and manual mode has to be established. Deactivating the automated mode has to be child safe.
Transfer of control has to include two aspects: An instant active take-over by the driver or a handover request from the car where the driver has considerable time to renew his situational awareness.
Drivers would like to be informed before the car is about to turn or take certain actions ideally by using predictable feedback mechanisms (e.g. turning signals).
While being confident about their own driving, most drivers worry about the competency of other drivers as well as of the automated system. Moreover, they think that they would be the better fall-back solution in an emergency situation.
Multi-sensory feedback was assumed to be the most effective way of communication between car and driver.
Vehicle dynamics and trust are strongly connected. Predictable driving style is considered as safe and comfortable. The automated car has to adapt to the driver’s driving preferences, while staying within the general safety boundaries.
Receiving constant information will help to build up trust in the beginning, but might become annoying overtime.
Most drivers are okay with being monitored while driving. This could also help to adapt take-over scenarios.
Instead of being just a machine, a self-driving car could take on a more personal role where the relationship between driver and car is based on trust, competence and predictable behavior.
It is likely that HMI in a fully automated car will be highly reduced.
While people seem to love the idea that they don’t have to focus on driving anymore, a few voiced their concern that the ability to drive and the thrill of driving will get lost.
Elderly, young and people with disabilities would benefit the most from fully automated systems, due to the advantage that automated cars can offer a “door to door” commute.
Based on the identified problem areas, we came up with the following opportunity areas and "How might we" questions, that later informed the ideation sessions:
Based on the pain points and ideas, we identified the following feature ideas to test out first:
My participation in the project has ended after I designed a set of wireframes due to the end of my time at Bosch. After a round of presentation and feedback, the team proceeded to designing a more detailed version of the HMI. After the round of visual designs was completed, the prototype was tested with the group of users. The vision video of a prototype was published on Robert's Bosch youtube channel.